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Hostess, the maker of such treats as Twinkies and Devil Dogs, will soon shut down. The plants that manufacture those sweets will close, Hostess will lay off its 18,500 employees, and the brands will be put up for sale.

Hostess products are viewed on the shelf at a grocery store on January in Manhattan. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

The privately held company says a nationwide strike by its workers meant the end for the company. A crushing amount debt—more than $1 billion—had already forced the Irving, Texas company back into bankruptcy court for the second time in a decade (That's why Hostess filed for Chapter 22 bankruptcy, not Chapter 11). Hostess had warned that it would need to shut down if production did not return to normal by yesterday evening.

"Many people have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands," Rayburn says in an letter to employees posted on the company's Website.

Three plants closed earlier this week. All 33 of them, which make other things like Wonder Bread, Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's, have been impacted by the strike.

While a competitor with public food companies like Kraft Foods Group, Kellogg, PepsiCo and Hershey, the 82-year-old company has struggled to maintain peace with its union. Labor costs, as well as volatile raw material expenses, badly impaired the business. Hostess had more than $2 billion in unfunded pensions costs owed to the unions.